Smoke and Shadow
by beehoon
Summary: They stepped through the Song Portal, expecting to see the final Statue of Purification, but instead were diverted into a nightmare that had once been a humble village by the name of West Harbor...
1. Chapter 1: Smoke

A/N: As you will realise shortly, this takes place after they enter the Song Portal for the first time, and end up in West Harbor. I was always really dissatisfied with everyone's reactions to it, and so here we go. Reviews would be appreciated!:)

"Where are we?" Casavir's voice was very quiet.

"I think… I think we're in West Harbor."

Shandra whispered, "Oh Gods…"

We were in front of the bridge, facing the village with the stream and my father's house to our backs. From here, I could see that every house had been torched, with some embers still flaring up from time to time. I could make out crumpled forms in the twilight, and my stomach lurched.

I turned around very slowly, the shard burning in my chest. The waters of the stream were black like pitch now, its smell of rot mingling with the miasma of smoke and death. I looked at the house and saw that all that was left of the place where I had grown up was a few charred beams. I couldn't breath. As I approached, I left my eyes roam over the area despite my nausea, desperately hoping that I wouldn't see anything of my father. He would have known to leave! The land would have told him.

There was nothing.

A heavy hand gripped my shoulder, and Casavir's deep blue eyes met my own dark ones when I turned. Shandra came to put her arms around me.

"We've got to search for survivors." Even as I said it, I saw the hopelessness in their eyes, but they nodded their assent. Bishop frowned slightly, but trailed behind us anyway.

I recognized the pile of robes from afar, and swallowed hard, then walked towards it. It was Brother Merring, as I had expected, and I knew from the angle of neck that he was dead. I knew it, but I had to make sure, feeling for a pulse, watching for a breath that would never come.

I've been here before. This nightmare of smoke and death, checking the limp bodies for life, always, always, finding none. Georg, Web, Wyl, and so many more. The coldness of death radiated up my hands, striking deep into my core. I saw a familiar red dress, and couldn't force back the strangled sound that escaped my throat.

Aunt Retta lay with arms thrown wide, summoning magic that would not come in time to save her. The hounds lay by her side, faces twisted into rigid snarls. I knelt by her, brushing graying hair away. Her face was contorted with fear and pain, and there were parallel gashes where a shadow's claws must have raked her face, burning her flesh away to the bone. Within the smell of sick death, a musty aroma of herbs wafted up from her hair…

"_Remember this root, Yun?"_

"_That's the one that can protect us from disease! It's called Meade's root, right?"_

"_That's my girl. Now you run along and play with Bevil. It ain't right for a girl to be in this musty hole on such a fine day."_

"_But I like the smell of all your herbs, Aunt Retta. And Bevil doesn't want to play with me anymore. He likes Amie now."_

_She chuckled, and tousled my hair. "If you say sorry for telling him that tadpoles are magic, then he'll play with you again."_

"_But I don't want to."_

"_You just have to do some things, dear. That's life."_

"_No!"_

"No!" The floodgates of memory opened wide, and children's voices came crowding in as we skipped and ran and caught shrimp. Their dying screams layered over that wall of sound, followed by Georg's tales of the swamp elf, Brother Merring's sermons, Aunt Retta's voice…

"_I heard that you're back. And it's not for good. If you'll excuse me, I have some errands to run." She walked away, and I pretended I didn't hear the coldness in her voice._

"I'm sorry!" I was running now, anywhere, just away from here. "I'm so sorry!"


	2. Chapter 2: Shadow

A/N: Thank you very much for the reviews! 3 I have been sucked into the black hole of MotB, so I'm not sure if I'll ever muster the focus to finish this. Oh well... :P

She froze as she bent over the old woman's body, and I saw something inside her snap. Her eyes were unfocused as she turned, looking through us. The farm girl took her arm, but she shook her off.

"No! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

She bolted, wrapping herself in an invisibility spell. I swore as I took off after her. There might still be monsters around, and I didn't know what trouble she might get into.

I followed the sound of her footsteps, but eventually that stopped. Closing my eyes to block out distractions, I listened; and heard her cough. I moved cautiously in that direction, felt something rush past me and threw myself at it, tackling her to the ground. I kept my grip around her, holding her tight as the spell faded, and she was fighting me, hitting me with clenched fists as she sobbed.

"Let me out! I have to wake up. It's a dream. I've had this dream. Please let me wake up!" She was trembling violently, and finally she stopped fighting, burying her face in the crook of my shoulder, hot tears caught between her face and my neck. Her fingers dug into the leather jerkin I wore, and her breathing was ragged, punctuated by deep, hollow coughs.

"It's just a dream. Gods, please. Just a bad dream."

The gith was saying urgently, "Know that we must go. If they managed to divert us, they will be trying to stop us from completing the ritual." The paladin's face twitched when he saw us, but he didn't do anything. He knew as well as I did that neither of us could really help her.

Abruptly I was angry, angry that I had let her hurt herself like this, angry that the damned gith was so blind to her pain, angry that I had never felt anything when my own village had burned, save a blessed emptiness. There had never been any love; how could there be any pain?

She was a stupid girl for letting the villagers get under her skin like that, but I yearned to make whoever did this burn for it.

I lifted her chin gently. "Yun. Look at me. This is not a dream, and you know it. There's nothing to be done for them, but I promise you, we'll make whoever did this _pay_."

"I've got to go on. But I can't."

The farm girl was rubbing her back soothingly, trying to help her tensed muscles relax. It obviously wasn't working; she was trying to pull into herself, every muscle taut with misery.

"I believe in you, Yun," The farm girl was saying. "Let's do this thing. Just keep going, for a little while more."

She drew in a deep, shuddering breath. Her full lips pressed into a thin line, and after a couple of minutes, she pulled away from me. I felt an odd tightness in my chest, watching her push her grief back into herself by sheer willpower. How long could she keep such a fierce pain repressed? The stick-up-his-arse paladin would never have been able to do it, and he had his whole life to use his faith to numb himself.

She looked at me but averted her eyes quickly, swallowing hard. "I'm ready."

"Then let's go kill some shadows."


End file.
